Book Review: ‘Stirring Up Fun with Food’ by Sarah Michelle Gellar

Everyone wants their families to eat well (and healthily), and if the meals can be fun, too, well that’s even better. Not only will appealing-looking food encourage your children to eat it, but they’ll be more likely to want to join you in the kitchen when fun food crafting comes into play. Don’t worry, we’re not talking unicorn-coloured and aspirational Pinterest-like recipes here; nope, instead these recipes are blueprints for bringing healthy food to the table in cute and clever (read: doable) ways.

For this, we can thank Buffy Summers (others may know her as Sarah Michelle Gellar), who’s traded in her vampire-slaying stakes for a book full of more than 115 family-friendly, easy food-crafting recipes to help add flair and excitement to your table. Instead of giving readers a waffle recipe, she creates mini waffles on a stick with a maple syrup dipping sauce, and ordinary broccoli is made into healthy muffins for an inspiring spin on a frequently polarizing (for the kids) ingredient.

The book is organized by month, with recipes for every occasion on the calendar from Super Bowl Sunday in February to Star Wars Day in May to Back to School survival recipes for the month of September. One flip through the pages and you can’t help but be enticed to stir up fun in the kitchen with your own kids. Regardless of whether you’re a novice home cook or an expert with professional experience, you’ll be sure find yourself charmed by the creative dishes guaranteed to leave clean plates behind.

One of our favourite recipes from the book is the Sweet Pizza with Fruit Toppings. Essentially a giant sugar cookie smeared with a cream cheese sauce and decorated with fruit, it’s fun dessert that’s perfect for picnics and parties. Find the recipe here. 

Lead image by Ellen Silverman for goodhousekeeping.com